


Freezing

by jujus_writing_corner



Series: Whumptober 2019 [29]
Category: Real Person Fiction, Youtube RPF
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Frostbite, Gen, Hypothermia, Self-Sacrifice, Sort Of, Whumptober 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-08 00:47:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21227012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jujus_writing_corner/pseuds/jujus_writing_corner
Summary: One day in winter, Chrome and Yandere get trapped outside in a snowstorm. Chrome is determined to make sure Yandere survives the night, no matter what.Whumptober Day 29: Numb





	Freezing

**Author's Note:**

> This is actually based on a little...idea? prompt? hc? that I wrote a long time ago on my tumblr. I actually tried to find it while I was writing this and couldn't lmao
> 
> Enjoy!

It’s cold.

It’s so, so cold.

Chrome’s GPS fritzed out from the storm three hours ago. He found an overhang of rock to shelter from the worst of the snowfall nearly two hours ago. The sun went down an hour ago.

Yandereplier lost consciousness twenty minutes ago.

Chrome holds him against his chest, trying to keep him warm. Maybe not warm; warm isn’t a possibility in this blizzard. The pair had been out enjoying the snow already on the ground – Yandere’s idea – when it started to snow again. By the time they realized how bad it was, it was too late to leave. They hadn’t been to this area before, and neither Chrome’s GPS or Yandere’s cell phone could get enough signal to lead them home. Rather than attempt to find the way themselves and potentially get more lost, Chrome had decided they ought to stay put and wait to be found. The other egos are no doubt looking for them; Chrome and Yandere were supposed to head home at about the time the storm hit its zenith. Even now, the wind is still biting, the snow is still coming in thick. The rock overhang keeps the pair from being buried in snow, but it does little about the wind and doesn’t provide any warmth.

Chrome doesn’t experience temperature like a human. He’s practically immune to sunburn and frostbite, and his body is much better at generating heat and chill than a human. But even Chrome is feeling numb from the cold. His hands don’t work well anymore; he can only barely keep a hold on Yandere. He thinks he might stumble if he tried to get up due to his frozen feet. His face doesn’t feel real anymore, like a featureless block of ice.

But Yandere is clearly much worse off. Chrome’s already shed his own winter coat and scarf to put them on Yandere, ignoring his slurred protests. Even so, Yandere’s nose and parts of his lips are colored black and blue with frostbite, and Chrome has a feeling his toes and fingers might be following suit, even with the boots and gloves covering them up. Chrome was able to rouse him the first few times Yandere nodded off, but this time, he’s been unable to wake him. His heartbeat is unnaturally slow; Chrome can hear it beneath the howling wind.

Chrome is still intelligent even without an internet connection. He doesn’t want to think about his and Yandere’s chances of survival; he knows they have to be low. Just the thought makes him angry, and it’s the one thing he can still feel in this crushing cold.

He won’t lose his brother like this. Not if he has anything to say about it.

Chrome has one last thing he can do: He’s held his body heat in reserve so far, his systems automatically prioritizing keeping his core at an optimal temperature and letting everything else get cold. It’s half the reason his legs, his arms, his face have lost most of their sensation. But if he funnels his remaining heat away from his core, back into his arms around Yandere, he’ll…

Well, he’ll die, probably. But he’ll give Yandere a chance to survive the night.

Yandere may be older, but Chrome is stronger. Yandere is Chrome’s responsibility to protect, to keep safe. Chrome’s defended Yandere countless times, saved him from death more times than even his mechanical mind can recall, but he’d repeat them all again if he had to. And he’ll get that chance if he can keep Yandere alive, alive to get himself into trouble another day. Alive to play Mario Kart with Chrome, alive to pull Chrome’s head into his lap and mess with his hair, alive to find the prettiest red nail polish he owns and paint Chrome’s fingernails with it. Even if Chrome doesn’t survive, Yandere will be alive to tackle-hug and laugh with Dr. Iplier, alive to lounge around the studio with Wilford, alive to sit on Darkiplier’s desk and steal kisses while he works. Alive to _live_.

If Chrome has to die for that, so be it, but he won’t let Yandere be the one to die.

He redirects the heat in his core away, into his arms. He gasps a little, his chest seizing briefly as the heat flows away. He tightens his arms around Yandere, runs a thumb over the exposed skin of his cheek. Yandere shivers, dislodging snowflakes from his eyelashes. He doesn’t wake up, but even the shivering is a positive sign, so Chrome keeps at it. His arms nearly reach their normal warmth as his legs, his waist, his abdomen, his face, his neck, and slowly, his chest fall away from his awareness. He is only a pair of arms holding Yandere, only a vessel of life-saving heat.

Chrome’s breathing, an automatic function to circulate air, stutters and stills. The motionless air solidifies, and Chrome can feel ice creep into his cold metal bones. His core flutters. Warnings pop up, over and over until he can’t see Yandere past them. But he can hear Yandere’s heartbeat, still slow, but still chugging along, and Chrome lets his eyes close against the warnings. They flare up in his mind, dozens of them, until one final warning tells him that his systems are forcing a shutdown.

Chrome can’t care. He can’t think. He can’t feel a thing at all. Even his arms have gone cold, all their heat soaked up by Yandere. Chrome can only hear Yandere’s heartbeat under the wind, thumping, thumping, thumping, lulling Chrome to sleep.

_Do not sleep,_ says what remains of his thoughts, _Sleep is dangerous in this cold._

It doesn’t matter. Chrome can only listen to Yandere’s heart gently beating as the world, already dark with night, disappears completely.

~~~

Later, much later, days after the storm, as Chrome lies in the control room, his mind wakes up before his touch sensors do. He only knows by sight when Yandere visits him, when Yandere cups his cheeks and presses his forehead against Chrome’s. But he can hear Yandere weeping, hear him scolding Chrome for almost getting himself killed, hear his heart, strong and warm and healthy, beating loud beneath his ribs. He can move just enough to cup Yandere’s face in return, to thumb his tear-stained cheek like he did that night, and tell him it was worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> In the original thing I wrote about this idea, Chrome ended up dying, but I just couldn't do it, man ;w;
> 
> Also, how about October 30, huh? Which is tomorrow? Wild. Catch me at work dodging spoilers all day ;;;w;;;


End file.
